Two old friends bumped into one another on the street one day. One man looked very sad and discouraged, almost on the verge of tears. His friend asked, “What has the world done to you, my old friend?”
The sad fellow said, “Three weeks ago, a rich uncle of mine died. To my surprise, he included me in his will. His lawyers sent me a check for $40,000!”
“That’s terrific,” said the friend. “That’s a lot of money.”
“Yes, but two weeks ago, they sent me another check—this time for $100,000!”
“Wow, that’s incredible!” said the friend. “You’ve really been blessed!”
“You don’t understand,” the man whined. “Last week I got another check in the mail that was larger than the first two. It was for a quarter of a million dollars!”
The friend was getting very confused. “You’re right, I don’t understand. Why then are you so unhappy? Why do you look so glum?”
“Because this week I haven’t received anything,” came the reply.
Where to Take It from Here…
Sometimes we are so blessed that we begin to think we’re entitled to all the good things that come our way. Perhaps it’s human nature. If you give a small child a gift, he’ll treasure it. But if you give him two gifts, he’ll might wonder why he didn’t get a third.
What happens when you lose things you’ve come to expect? What happens when there’s a power outage and you can’t watch TV or operate your hair dryer? What happens when you get sick and can’t do some of the things that you’d planned? If you’re like most people, you probably become resentful and angry. You don’t realize that the things you have are privileges, not rights. They are the blessings from God.
None of us deserves the things we have. We live very comfortably while people all over the world suffer. We take for granted things that other people have never experienced. Yet we still feel like we don’t have enough. We want more. And we aren’t very grateful for what we do have.
That’s why it’s important for us to practice an attitude of gratitude. We need to take time every day to thank God for the blessings he has given us (Colossians 3:15). When you’re thankful for what you have, you’ll be able to live every day with joy—whether you get more or not!
